Whenever those of us on the right gawk and gripe at the latest instance of leftwing policy, be it the border, defunding police, or having no limits on abortion, we always wonder if these are the result of incompetence or malice.
The thing is, they can make moral arguments for what they do; they just don’t invoke enough of them.
Basically, a guy named Jonathan Haidt proposed back in 2009 that all moral codes across time and space are composed of five basic virtues: notions of fairness, caring for others, loyalty, respect for authority, and ideas of what is pure/sacred or not. The moral code of leftists pays greater attention to fairness and care specifically, while conservatives’ moral code includes all five virtues, but emphasizes loyalty, authority, and sacristy/purity more (there is a sixth one he added later on concerning ideas of freedom/liberty versus oppression, but the focus is on the original five).
Conservatives think immigrants should respect authority by coming legally with clean criminal records (outside of unjust persecution in their home countries) and a genuine desire to become loyal Americans. To the left, people coming across the border illegally have no choice but to come that way, and it is unfair to them if we don’t take them in. Plus, they should be cared for the same way we care for citizens.
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Conservatives say cops put their lives on the line for us against those who want to do us harm, so we owe it to them to obey laws and conduct ourselves properly, while still saying wrongful deaths should be punished appropriately. For the left, cops are unfairly targeting minorities and using excessive force, leading to wrongful deaths. So police forces should be reformed toward rehabilitation if not abolished entirely.
To conservatives, if the difference between men and women is arbitrary, men with malicious intent will take advantage by identifying as female in order to dominate women’s sports at best or prey on women and girls at worst. Additionally, personal anecdotes and research have suggested gender reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy produce more harm than good, with minimal work showing their benefits. To the left, trans people are expressing their true selves, and we have no right to tell them no. In fact, we should help them better realize their true selves.
For conservatives, life has intrinsic value and should be protected, while abortion harms women just as much as the unborn child does and produces dysfunctional relationships between men and women that unfairly benefiting men. For the left, abortion is a healthcare decision to be made by women exclusively, and women should be given an “out” if pregnancy is detrimental to them in any way and should not be forced to give birth to an unwanted child.
And we’re seeing the effects of this two-moral line of thinking all around us.
A desire to care for migrants crossing the border and make the process fairer for them has allowed the cartels to effectively control the border.
Wanting to prevent police brutality against minorities has mutated into record crime in cities because criminals are all but free to commit crimes in broad daylight with no real consequences.
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Challenging restrictive gender norms has come full circle, as malicious men can assert dominance over women by claiming to be one of them, so they can violate women’s spaces and privacy.
And a well-meaning desire for women to be able to work outside the home has resulted in over 65 million people who never got to be born.
